Digital Commons Network^™

Accident Prediction On E-Bikes Using Computer Vision, Rohith Puvvala Subramanyam

Master's Theses

Micro Mobility refers to small, confined pace range, and lightweight modes oftransportation, which include e-Bikes and e-Scooters. Micro Mobility riders are prone to harm and deadly injuries on city streets. Statistics show that on average 27 out of 82 (33%) humans, in the United States get injured every day in e-motorcycle injuries, which is rapidly increasing as compared to previous years. The current accident prediction strategies have been rather technically complicated to be incorporated onto micromobility vehicles which are lighter in weight and smaller in size. Current strategies bring key challenges to light. First, as micro-mobility vehicles are small and …

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Female Olympic Athletes’ Experiences With Social Media, Mercedez M. Sanchez

Master's Theses

Social media is prevalent in athletes’ lives and sport today. Sport psychology scholars have conducted numerous research studies on the effects of social media in athletes, yet not specifically athletes who have participated in the Olympic Games. Less is known about how Olympic athletes perceive, interpret, and manage both positive and negative social media effects. It is essential that those involved in athletics are aware of how the highest-level athletes experience various forms of public feedback on social media, and how they can manage the effects of this feedback. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine the experiences …

You’Re Dying Up There, Ryan H. Smith

Master's Theses

YOU’RE DYING UP THERE is a feature-length dramatic screenplay about Bob Nash, a struggling stand-up comedian, whose sole focus, after discovering he has stage IV lung cancer, becomes headlining The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. This feature length dramatic screenplay serves as a meditation for how to write an anti-hero, as well as an exploration of the emotional depths of the traditional harlequin role. By stripping away much of the joke-heavy presence that the main character resides in as a public persona, the audience can explore both the depression he experiences and the loathsome qualities he possesses. Nash convinces his …

Common Pattern Generation For The Detection Of Lolbin Attacks, Alaa Abushqeir

Master's Theses

The cybersecurity environment is constantly evolving as attackers deploy progressively advanced methodologies. The utilization of Living Off the Land Binaries (LOLBins) represents a notable strategy in which normal system utilities are exploited for the purpose of executing malicious actions. This approach poses difficulties in terms of both detection and mitigation. The primary objective of this study is to examine LOLBins, which are a specific category of tactics falling under the broader concept of ”Living Off the Land” (LOL). In LOLBins, malicious actors exploit pre-existing tools in order to maintain a covert presence and circumvent security measures. Defending against LOLBins is …

Western Snowy Plover Dispersal In Response To Repeated Nest Loss In Monterey Bay, California, Esther A. Haile

Master's Theses

Western snowy plovers (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) breed and winter along sandy beaches and salt pannes of the Pacific coast of the U.S. and Mexico. Since 2015, the percentage of successful nests in Monterey Bay has declined due to predation. This study examines the site fidelity and dispersal of western snowy plovers after repeated nest loss using nesting data from 2013-2020 from a banded population in Monterey, California. Dispersal distance within a breeding season reflected plovers serially polygamous breeding strategy, with more site fidelity within a breeding season than between two breeding seasons. Nests lost to environmental causes having a 41.3% …

Trophic Ecology And Mercury Concentrations Of Canary Rockfish (Sebastes Pinniger) In The California Current System, Michaela M. Melanson

Master's Theses

Canary rockfish are a profitable fishery resource that has failed and successfully recovered in the 21st century. This study aimed to evaluate their trophic ecology through stomach content and stable isotope analysis and relate these to their mercury concentrations, biological traits, and environmental conditions. Canary rockfish consume mostly krill and teleosts with their geographic location affecting the proportion of prey items, suggesting regional environmental effects: chlorophyll-a, relief, port, and depth impact dietary choices. Mean ??13C values (-17.18 ± 0.54) significantly increased in individuals residing in deeper depths, higher latitudes, higher productivity, and higher temperatures, and in sexually mature individuals. Mean …

The Debate On Nil: Progress For Female Collegiate Sports?, Stephanie Andrada

Master's Theses

In this study, seven female collegiate athletes from three different women’s sports teams (basketball, gymnastics, and volleyball) from a mid-major, Division-I college were interviewed. The study analyzed the lived experiences that NIL has on these specific female athletes in these particular women’s sports using a qualitative methodology. Three research questions were posed:

1. In what ways does the commercialization of college sports influence the NIL opportunities for these female athletes?
2. Could NIL perpetuate an uneven playing field for these female athletes in competition for limited resources?
3. To what degree do these female college athletes feel that NIL presents opportunities for equitable …

Structure, Construction, And Emplacement Of The Northern Margin Of The Late Cretaceous Sonora Pass Intrusive Suite: North-Central Sierra Nevada Batholith, California, Victoria A. Arnold

Master's Theses

Of the four voluminous, normally zoned Late Cretaceous intrusive suites of the Sierra Nevada batholith, the >1,000 km², ~96-88 Ma Sonora Pass intrusive suite is the oldest, northernmost, and least studied. It contains the marginal, equigranular Kinney Lakes hornblende-biotite granodiorite and the inner, porphyritic Topaz Lake biotite granodiorite. From this research, the Lake Alpine granodiorite is now considered the outermost part of the Sonora Pass intrusive suite. The suite intruded Early Cretaceous plutons and metasedimentary rocks. The Kinney Lakes and Lake Alpine granodiorites were constructed by multiple phases, as were the plutonic host rocks. The granodiorites are marked by schlieren …

Sustainable Roots: The Environmental Genealogies Of Chicanas And Latinas, Marlene Andrade

Master's Theses

Ingenuity and tending to the land are anything but contemporary to Communities of Color (COC). Even when our communities become targets of environmental racism and experience the brunt of institution-based degradation, COC resist in a multitude of ways. While there is a plethora of documented social movements led by the Chicanx community for civil, educational, and labor rights, there is a paucity of Chicanx presence in environmental discourse. Thus, my scholar-activist commitments are to highlight Chicana/Latina herstories, epistemologies, and praxes that debunk the narrow white-heteropatriarchal male narrative in mainstream environmentalism. This dominant narrative fails to: (a) address the historical and …

Group-Invariant Reinforcement Learning, Fnu Ankur

Master's Theses

Our work introduces a way to learn an optimal reinforcement learning agent accompanied by intrinsic properties of the environment. The extracted properties helps the agent to extrapolate the learning to unseen states efficiently. Out of all the various types of properties, we are intrigued towards equivariant and invariant properties, which essentially translates to symmetry. Contrary to many approaches, we do not assume the symmetry, rather learn them, making the approach agnostic to the environment and the property. The learned properties offers multiple perspective of the environment to exploit it to benefit decision making while interacting with the environment. By building …

The Inverse Association Between Prebiotic Consumption And Depression Status In American Adult Females, But Not The Greater Population Or In Males: Nhanes 2015-2018, Cassandra L. Boyd

Master's Theses

It is unknown if a relationship exists between prebiotic intake and depression status. Using 2015-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey cycles data, adult American estimated mean daily prebiotic intake across demographic groups, gender, and depression status were reported. Additionally, the 10 highest prebiotic content Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies foods were identified. Adults (≥ 18 years) with adequate sleep and at least one day of dietary recall data were included. Participants with excessive alcohol intake, BMI ≤ 18, BMI ≥ 30, or current depression medication use were excluded. The confounding variables were inadequate sleep, unemployment, and age. …

Barn Owls (Tyto Alba) And Biodiversity Near Hemp Farms And Grasslands In Oregon, Usa, Lacey Brianne Thun

Master's Theses

Extensive agriculture poses a major threat to biodiversity worldwide, although some species, such as the barn owl (Tyto alba), can thrive in many agroecosystems. Barn owls, the world's most widely distributed owl, provide rodent management, and their presence may be both an indicator of and support for ecosystem biodiversity. Little previous research documents the relationship between barn owls and adjacent crop attributes, however. In 2018, hemp (Cannabis sativa) was taken off the federal Controlled Substance Act list and permitted as an agricultural crop. Hemp is now rapidly increasing in extent in Oregon, USA. This research assessed the reproductive success and …

Electronic And Optical Properties Of 2d Materials And Their Van Der Waals Heterostructures Using Density Functional Theory, Paridhi Bisht

Master's Theses

Layered 2D materials offer unique physical and chemical properties, including high surface area-to-volume ratios, layer-dependent electronic and optical traits, and scalability. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) represent a versatile class within 2D materials, with metals, semiconductors, insulators, and superconductors. Weak van der Waals forces between layers enable easy exfoliation and stacking for vertical heterostructures, promising electronic and optical device manipulation. This thesis investigates monolayer graphene, h-BN, MoTe2, WTe2-2H, WTe2-1T', and their heterostructures using DFT-based calculations. Results show stable heterostructures, particularly Gr/WTe2-2H as a Schottky n-type junction for FETs and magnetoresistance devices. Strain-induced bandgap modulation and redshifts offer potential for bandgap engineering …

Examining The Role Of Echo-Chambers Within Online Incel Communities Using Sentiment Analysis And Group Based Trajectory Modeling, Francesca Florine Fanucchi

Master's Theses

Technological advancements within the last decade have created new opportunities for social movements to meet and communicate online with like-minded individuals. Under this notion, these online communities generate an echo-chamber of information, to which certain individuals only surround themselves with people sharing similar values and opinions. As a result, online platforms (e.g., forums, blogs, websites) form as safe spaces for members to express their views seen as unacceptable offline. Research examining the role of echo-chambers in facilitating extremist rhetoric within online incel communities is limited, despite real-world acts of violence perpetrated by self-proclaimed incels. Therefore, the objective of this thesis …

Thinking Styles, Conspiracist Belief, And The Mediating Role Of The Dunning-Kruger Effect In Modeling Belief Change, Lucas C. Cusano

Master's Theses

Why can a person believe something for which there is no evidence and yet also fail to believe something for which there is overwhelming evidence? This study develops a structural model of belief change using the latent constructs of thinking styles and conspiracist belief while accounting for the Dunning-Kruger effect (i.e., overconfidence in one’s knowledge the less one knows about a topic) as a mediator. A combined two-hundred and twenty-six participants from both Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and the introductory psychology SONA subject pool were given two knowledge measures on topics of genetic modification and vaccination before and after reading refutational …

Motivated Reasoning In Technology Workers, Kory Feath

Master's Theses

The goal of this study is to investigate cognitive predictors for motivated reasoning, the process in which evidence evaluation is influenced by prior beliefs, in technology workers. Two hundred and twenty-one technology workers were recruited using Prolific and word-of-mouth to evaluate the conflicting evidence of social media causing digital harm. Past research has found that many individual cognitive styles do not predict motivated reasoning, but by using structural equations modeling to investigate the latent variable analytical/reflective thinking styles, I predicted that more active thinking styles will reduce motivated reasoning and be mediated by prior belief strength. A structural equations model …

Crawling The Dark Web: Structural Attributes Of Child Sexual Abuse Websites On The Dark Web, Enrique Guerra

Master's Theses

Inherent encryption and anonymity of the Dark Web has facilitated its use for a variety of illegal activities, including the dissemination of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Detection of CSAM has increasingly turned to automated tools; however, these tools’ reliance on databases of known CSAM limit their flexibility and ability to identify previously unknown CSAM. Currently, it is unknown whether the lack of countermeasures used by CSAM disseminators on the Surface Web translates to the Dark Web. Therefore, this thesis examines the structural and naming patterns of websites hosting CSAM on the Dark Web, to identify new, complimentary, detection methods. …

Automatic Presentation Slide Generation Using Llms, Tanya Gupta

Master's Theses

Presentation slides are widely used for conveying information in academic and professional contexts. However, manual slide creation can be time-consuming. Our research focuses on automated slide generation, specifically for scientific research papers. Automating the creation of presentation slides for scientific documents is a rather novel task and hence, there’s limited training data available and there also exists the token constraints of language models like BERT, with a maximum sequence length of 512 tokens. In this study, we fine-tune large language models, including Longformer-Encoder-Decoder (supporting sequences up to 16,834 tokens) and BIGBIRD-Pegasus (supporting sequences up to 4,096 tokens). We tackle this …

Evaluating The Effect Of Resveratrol On Sirt1 With Different Peptide Substrates, Yujin Hur

Master's Theses

SIRT1 is an NAD+-dependent lysine deacetylase that is involved in many important cellular pathways. The protein has an extended N-terminal domain that seems to play a role in regulating its activity. Sirtuin Activating Compounds (STACs) are allosteric activators, such as resveratrol, that regulate the activity of SIRT1. STACs bind to the N-terminal STAC Binding Domain (SBD) in SIRT1. Past literature has found that SIRT1 activity can be increased, decreased, or remain unchanged by resveratrol depending on the identity of the peptide substrate. The goal of this study is to clarify the mechanism for substrate-specific allosteric regulation by resveratrol. The interactions …

Habitat Value Of Stormwater Retention Basins For Avian Species In The South San Francisco Bay, Maya D. Briones

Master's Theses

Shorebird populations are declining worldwide due to habitat fragmentation, degradation, and loss. A potential, understudied set of resources that might be used to benefit waterfowl, especially breeding shorebirds, are artificial wetlands such as stormwater retention basins. This study evaluated the habitat value of stormwater retention basins in the San Francisco Bay Area by measuring species abundance, richness, and behavior. Seston, or biota and other suspended material, was collected and tested for mercury contents. Additionally, the habitat features within each basin were recorded and tracked for changes over a year. The stormwater retention basins supported a higher diversity of bird species …

Impacts Of Synoptic-Scale Dynamics On Cloud Properties And Radiation In High Southern Latitudes, Tyler R. Barone

Master's Theses

Predicting future climate change relies on accurate representations of the earth’s surface radiation budget. Complex interactions between large-scale dynamical conditions (e.g., low-pressure systems) and microscale processes (e.g., cloud properties) are key contributors to energy budget biases within global climate models. Proper estimation of cloud microscale processes and their responses to synoptic-scale dynamics will greatly improve the accuracy of the simulated energy balance within global climate models. High-latitudinal clouds have significant influences on the Earth’s radiative balance. We examined observations from two field campaigns at Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean and McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Two global climate models are …

The Moderating Effects Of Sleep Quantity And Quality On The Relationship Between Job Stressors And Job Satisfaction, Olga A. Baryshnikova

Master's Theses

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study was the first to investigate the moderating effects of sleep quantity and sleep quality on the relationships between role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, and interpersonal conflict with job satisfaction. In doing so, it addressed a gap in the literature on organizations and provided a new direction for future research in this sphere. Leveraging the Job Demands-Resources model as a theoretical foundation, this study looked at sleep quantity and quality as personal resources capable of counteracting the negative impacts of the aforementioned job stressors on job satisfaction. Underscoring their known detrimental …

Deep Learning In Ai Medical Imaging For Stroke Diagnosis, James Mario Guzman

Master's Theses

Enhancing medical imaging stroke diagnosis applications with artificial intelligence (AI) tools to determine lesion volume, location and clinical metadata is vital toward guiding patient treatment and procedure. A major hardship in developing stroke diagnosis AI tools is the scarcity of publicly available clinical 3D stroke datasets. Through working with Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan’s ICPSR data repository and SJSU research, we gained access to potentially the largest 3D MRI stroke dataset with clinical metadata annotated by neuroradiologists known as ICPSR 38464. With the ICPSR 38464 dataset recently being available through institutional review board (IRB) approval or exemption, we were …

Spatiotemporal Dynamics And Biogeochemical Responses In A Tidally Restricted Moro Cojo Slough, Ryan Chiu

Master's Theses

Four years of observational data for Moro Cojo Slough (MCS), a Mediterranean climate estuary in central California, linked anthropogenic nutrient loading and hydrological modifications to a shift in net ecosystem metabolism (NEM) that differs from the characteristic net heterotrophic behavior of most estuarine systems. A lack of precipitation and limited flushing during the dry seasons, as evidenced from hypersaline waters, contribute to high ecosystem respiration rates that drove NEM to nearly balanced or net autotrophic. During the wet seasons, increased runoff and nutrient loading due to precipitation elevated primary production rates within MCS, characterizing the system as net autotrophic. Box …

Linking Social Dynamics To Private Land Management: A Study Of Prescribed Burn Associations In Northern California, Spencer R. Klinefelter

Master's Theses

Prescribed fire is one way to improve the adaptive capacity of communities in the wildland urban interface in terms of managing wildfire risk and meeting socio-ecological goals. In California, Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) are a way of organizing private landowners with the goal of engaging in more widespread and frequent prescribed fires. This research uses semi-structured interviews with private landowners, along with key informants from public agencies such as CalFire and Regional Parks, to explore PBA development and functioning in northern coastal California. Sonoma and Marin counties were chosen as the primary study sites as they are represented by the …

No Kidding: The Moderating Role Of Childcare Responsibility On The Relationship Between Perceived Work-Life Balance Policy Culture And Job Outcomes, Ziwei Gao

Master's Theses

The societal assumption that everyone will or should have children at some point is deeply ingrained in many cultures. This often results in a lack of recognition and understanding of the experiences of childfree individuals, particularly within professional settings. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the moderating effect of childcare responsibility on the relationship between perceived work-life balance policy culture and job outcomes. A sample of 161 participants completed an online survey measuring perceived work-life balance policy culture, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Results showed that employees with high levels of perceived work-life balance policy culture reported …

Tree Removal From An Encroached Coastal Grassland Restores Soil Bacterial Communities Before Fungal Communities, Ka Ki Law

Master's Theses

Woody species encroachment depletes historic grassland biodiversity and degrades ecosystem function around the world. In particular, the encroaching trees can shift soil properties and microbial communities, which play critical roles in plant health and global nutrient cycling. Little is known about how removing encroached trees affects soil ecosystems, however. Over the last century, Pinus radiata and Hesperocyparis macrocarpa (non-native to the area) both encroached into coastal prairies at Rancho Corral de Tierra in California, and selected trees were removed in 2017 and 2018 to restore grassland habitats. To examine the impacts of encroachment and removal on the soil ecosystem, I …

Partnering With International Peers To Promote Young Children’S Social And Emotional Learning: Students’ Experiences During An International Service Learning Program, Danica D. Mavroudis

Master's Theses

International Service Learning (ISL) has been used increasingly across fields of study in higher education to enhance student’s learning outside the classroom. ISL programs often encourage students to reflect on their experience to promote experiential and transformative learning. Previous research on ISL has found benefits to students’ professional and personal development. While the process may be helpful to participating students, there may be a lack of lasting benefit to the host community. There also is a gap in the literature of how mental wellness services could be delivered using ISL. In hopes to extend program benefits and provide mental wellness …

Characterization And Evaluation Of Catalytic Activity Of Small Molecule Copper Complexes For Metallopolymer Design, Brenda Lu

Master's Theses

Catalysis is one of the driving forces in designing greener chemical processes for essential real-world applications. Enzymes, Nature’s catalysts, are known for their high selectivity, use of readily available metals and reagents, and ability to work under physiological conditions; three important qualities that synthetic chemists would like to mimic in their small molecule metal catalysts. Though most small molecule metal catalysts fall short of enzyme-like activity, we hypothesize that using a polymer scaffold as a secondary coordination sphere mimic around the metal complex will affect the microenvironment (steric and electronic) and enable enzyme-like activity. Previously, we synthesized ligand precursors and …

Examining The Plasticity Of The Dive Response In Relation To Dive Behavior Of Northern Elephant Seals (Mirounga Angustirostris), Shawn M. Hannah

Master's Theses

Marine mammals face an extraordinary challenge as they must actively hunt during breath-hold dives. This challenge is conquered by the dive response (the decreased heart rate and increased peripheral vasoconstriction associated with a breath hold) and is influenced by dive duration, depth, exercise, and cognitive control. I studied the dive response of one of the deepest diving marine mammals, the northern elephant seal, across two years to determine interactions between behavioral and physiological factors on a fine scale. I examined the influence of dive depth, duration, and activity (ODBA) on dive heart rate (fH), pre- and post-dive fH, post-dive surface …